cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/46182440
The European Union said Tuesday it plans to phase out gear supplied by companies based in “high risk” countries from critical infrastructure such as high-speed telecom networks, in a move seen as targeting Chinese companies including Huawei and ZTE.
Brussels’ proposed measures to tighten up cybersecurity come amid rising concerns that the bloc’s 27 member countries are vulnerable both to the dominance of Chinese high tech manufacturing and U.S. Big Tech services.
Under the draft legislation released by the EU’s executive commission, telecom equipment from so-called high risk suppliers in third countries would be phased out within three years.
The proposals don’t mention any countries or companies by name, but the term “high risk” has been previously used to refer to countries like China, home to tech giant Huawei. The company is the world’s biggest maker of networking equipment but has long been banned from the United States.
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The bloc’s executive said in 2023 that EU countries were justified in restricting or excluding Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese tech company sanctioned by the U.S., because they posed higher risks. But previous EU measures for 5G cybersecurity were recommended or voluntary, which resulted in uneven application across the bloc, with some countries buying Chinese gear while others shunned it.
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[Back in the fall 2025, China banned European suppliers Ericsson and Nokia over national security concerns.]
The US is already known to exploit flaws in US supplied telco hardware that only it knows about. The US is also known to add covert surveillance chips to otherwise clean hardware during the export process. If there’s any question about the US being a loyal partner of your country, they should be at the very top of the list. The China stuff is mostly theoretical at this point; they’re happy to spy using whatever flaws in your systems they can find.